As it is generally known, it is sometimes desirable for a user of information technology to access views of the applications that they recently used. For example, a user may stop using one or more applications at one point in time (e.g. due to being interrupted by a high priority task), and then at a later point in time (e.g. when the interruption is over) resume working on the task that they were working on at the time of the interruption. Under such circumstances, it is often useful for the user to view the contents of the user interfaces of the application or applications that they were previously using, as the user interfaces appeared at the time when the user was interrupted.
Various use cases illustrate the value of providing views of recently used applications. In some cases, the contents of a recently used application's user interface may be useful to the user so that the user can avoid needlessly performing previously completed tasks. For example, a view of a recently used application's user interface may indicate that specific user data was previously entered, thus enabling the user to avoid re-entering previously entered information, and/or to review and/or reuse the data that was previously entered. Similarly, a view of a recently used application's user interface may include results output from the application resulting from the application being used to perform a previously completed task. In another example, the user may be using an application to read a document at the time they are interrupted, and a view of the user interface of the application at the time of the interruption may indicate the specific place in the document at which the user was last reading, thus enabling the user to later resume reading of the document from the correct point within the document, either using the same application or a different application. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the preceding examples are not exhaustive, and that many other examples exist of the usefulness of providing views of recently used applications, involving other specific use cases, reflecting the operation of specific applications, and/or depending on the specific task or tasks being performed by the user.